Jetzt geht's los! Starting off the school year

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School starts next Monday for me and Wednesday for my students.  I'm really looking forward to and hoping for a more normal school year.  I felt lucky last school year as I was in the building with most of my students for most of the year, but this year we are not offering a virtual option or hybrid schedules (as of now).  

Today I wanted to write about some ideas for starting out the school year.  

Here's a list of ice break ideas I have used in the past.  I like to use these the first week or two of school.  

All first year students fill out this getting to know me sheet.  This year I will also give it to my resource (homeroom) students.  

I email and send home this Parent Welcome Letter with my first year students as well. 

Day 1: 

Level 1: I do not go over the syllabus! (I will do this day 3).  Instead I introduce myself in German and ask what the students understood and how they understood it since I am speaking German but they haven't learned German yet.  In the last few years I have added a slideshow of pictures with no text while I am talking for more support.  I like to show my students parts of these videos at the beginning of the year. We talk about the fact that I know that will feel like the non-German speakers in these videos. We talk about how they figure out what their partners are saying. https://youtu.be/myAt7mIA3iU and https://youtu.be/Vj8X7YeM3N4 

 We then talk about names in German speaking countries and go over pronunciation of the names.  I use this Google Slides presentation about population make-up and popular names in German speaking countries.  Then if my students want to, they pick German names.  If they want to keep their own names that's cool too!  If there's time we play some name games.  

Upper Levels: I do the same thing for the first few days of school in all of my other levels.  This year I will play Willkommen Zurück by Clueso and Andreas Bourani.  Students will then line themselves up alphabetically by the name they want to be called in German class.  Then we will play some name games.  My favorite is the My Name Your Name Game.  It's tricky!!  We clap twice then snap twice.  On the first snap you say your own name and on the second snap you say someone else's name. This passes the talking to the student whose name was said on the second snap and it keeps getting passed around.  Then we will work on posters about ourselves.  Just a simple Ich bin... and ich mag...(I am and I like)

Day 2: 

Level 1: Umm...did I tell you yet that I am an over-planner?  We usually will need to continue working on the name presentation and picking names on the next day.  Then we do a Find Someone Who activity like this one.  I am going to make one and add some German facts on there too.  After that I bring out a Schultüte and ask the students what they think it is.  If you don't teach German, a Schultüte is a large decorated cone filled with gifts that parents give there kids on their first day of first grade.  Here is a presentation I made about Schultüten.  In my own Schultüte I have chocolate from Aldi and little Gummy bears.  I tell the students that manners are important and teach them "danke" and "bitte" by walking around and asking students "Möchtest du Schokolade oder Gummibärchen?"  They then say "Schokolade bitte", "Gummibärchen bitte", or "Nein/Nichts, danke".   Then I give them what they asked for from my Schultüte.  While I do this they also work on the Getting to Know Me sheet linked above.  

Upper Levels: We also do a Find Someone Who activity in German or English.  Then we are going to discuss the proficiency levels.  I really like this handout by World Language Classroom.  Then students in small groups will each get a different proficiency level task card and have to explain what there is to do in our town and surrounding areas.  Creative Language Class has a great free presentation about Proficiency Levels with these task cards on Teacher's Pay Teachers.   I changed the prompt on my copy to: Imagine that you are talking to a new exchange student at your school.  He is wondering what there is to do in the area on weekends.  Please give him some good tips!  If there's time I collect the Ich bin and Ich mag and read them to the students.  They have to guess which of their classmates wrote it.  


Well, that's all for today folks!  Have a fabulous school year!

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